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Swedes and English: when things go wrong

Swedes are generally thought of as speaking English fairly well, but for some, the pressure to perform can be too much, proving that not everyone can defend the flattering reputation Swedes have of being bilingual masters.

Published: 21 November 2011 13:15 CET
Swedes and English: when things go wrong

Below, The Local has compiled a number of YouTube clips to visualize things that can go terribly wrong in the meshing of the two very different languages.

This Swedish gentleman is trying his best to explain his political convictions in English. One wonders whether it’s merely the language, or the views themselves that are muddled.

This next clip, from 2010, is perhaps one of the most famous examples of a language foul-up due to a small blunder by Swede Carl-Henric Svanberg, chair of energy giant BP, as he tried in vain to give voice to his company’s compassionate side following a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

For many Swedes, being British is strongly associated with being polite. At least it was when English was first introduced in Swedish schools in the 1940s, and it’s easy to see that conception sticking after clips like this.

One might think that an accomplished news anchor with Sveriges Television (SVT) would have no trouble using English when interviewing people outside of Sweden. But as anchor Rikard Palm demonstrates, even people who speak out loud for a living can get tripped up by tricky words.

The clip is from SVT talk show Robins during which Palm is talking about a call he made to hotel in Tokyo to get news about a recent earthquake because the Swedish embassy wouldn’t pick up.

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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Danes are ‘world’s second-best’ speakers of English as a foreign language

A new annual ranking has judged Danes to be the world’s second-best speakers of English as a second language.

Published: 20 November 2020 13:40 CET
Danes are 'world’s second-best' speakers of English as a foreign language
Photo: ActionVance on Unsplash

The newest edition of the annual English Proficiency Index (EPI) from global language training company Education First (EF) ranked Denmark second out of 100 countries that don't have English as a national language. 

That’s an improvement from last year, when Denmark was fourth, and means it has overtaken Nordic neighbours Sweden and Norway (now fourth and fifth respectively) on the list. Finland is ranked third, but Iceland, another Nordic country known for its natives’ high standard of English, is not included in the analysis.

“The countries with the highest English proficiency in Europe are clustered in Scandinavia. School systems in these countries employ several key strategies, including an early focus on communication skills, daily exposure to English both in and outside the classroom, and career-specific language instruction in the final years of study, whether that is vocational school or university,” the report states.

This year's index was again topped by The Netherlands.

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It appears Denmark has done well to slightly improve its position on the list, as the index authors found that the rest of the world is slowing catching up with those countries who have the highest proficiency levels.

“The worldwide, population-weighted average English proficiency score remained stable, but 26 countries’ scores improved significantly (meaning they gained more than 20 points), while only seven experienced significant declines,” the report summary notes.

The high scores of Denmark and the other countries near the top of the list are also a good reflection on those societies, EF writes.

“There is an increasingly clear relationship between a society’s connectedness to the world and the level of social and political equality experienced by its citizens,” the summary states.

“Closed societies turn inwards and nurture rigid hierarchies. Open societies look outwards. They are flatter, fairer places. English, as a medium of international connectivity, correlates well with measures of both equality and engagement with the outside world,” it continues.

A total of twelve countries were ranked in the ‘very high proficiency’ category, the highest level. Ten of the 12 are in Europe. The full top 12 is as follows:

  1. Netherlands
  2. Denmark
  3. Finland
  4. Sweden
  5. Norway
  6. Austria
  7. Portugal
  8. Germany
  9. Belgium
  10. Singapore
  11. Luxembourg
  12. South Africa

'Very high' proficiency is defined by EF as the ability to carry out complex, nuanced tasks in English, such as negotiating a contract with a native English-speaker, reading advanced texts with ease, and using nuanced and appropriate language in social situations.

The report is based on a comparison of English skills measured by testing 2.2 million people who took EF’s English tests in 2019. The full EPI report can be read here. 

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